Succeptibility

In Paragraph 30 of The Organon, Hahnemann states that the right medicines cure and overcome natural dis-ease, thus is appears that the vital force is more affected by medicines than by natural dis-ease.

This is partly because we can regulate the dose of medicines to make sure they are stronger that the dis-ease state, but also because the weaker, more chronic dis-ease is unvanquishable unless some agent affects the vital force. So when something stronger and similar affects the dis-ease, wiping out the extant disorder, the vital force can bounce back to balance and harmonious operation.

In Paragraphs 260-266 of The Organon, Hahnemann maintains that many foodstuffs in their natural state have medicinal action. He calls these “obstacles to cure” which aggravate dis-ease states, or even cause disease through “errors of diet”. Removal of these obstacles to cure will greatly assist recovery. Hahnemann also points out that people often crave certain foods or conditions. These “voices of nature” must be listened to, as they will assist the vital force and indicate the correct remedy or medicine.

In dis-ease, the vital force, affected by miasms, is seemingly too weak to restore health and order. The right remedy or medicine will boost the vital force, enabling it to eliminate the disease and restore health and harmony.

In selecting a remedy, the homeopath is acting with intent to cure, whereas a person in a state of dis-ease is directionless in comparison. They may be eating foods which aggravate them, behaving in a manner which hinders them, and not aware of the way out of their dillema. Of course, dis-ease produces a mental and emotional state which is disordered, thus maintaining the dis-ease. We call this behaviour a “maintaining cause”.

In order to resore health, a single minded approach and a remedy which is chosen to be stronger by design than the existing dis-ease must be administered. However, the approach must be wholistic and include diet, behaviour and a remedy, thus ensuring that we alter the vital force more surely than a natural dis-ease agent.

Some natural diseases are very strong, and certainly overcome the vital force, altering the level of health most significantly. This might seem an exception to our rule above, but the right remedy will still work in a much more reliable fashion, not by chance, but again by design. People in a state of dis-ease cannot wait for this all to sort itself out by chance. People in this world can be extremely ill, very affected by natural dis-ease agents with significantly impaired health. It is very easy to be in a state of fear about dis-ease, and this can attribute a terrible power to the illnesses of this world. However, the right remedies and medicines do restore health and alter the vital force most significantly, breaking down the awesome reputation of natural dis-ease states and restoring health and optimism.

Vithoulkas uses the analogy of resonant frequencies to explain suceptibility. If two tuning forks resonate on the same note, they are in harmony. In health, harmony is order and the object of cure. Dis-ease is disharmony and causes symptoms of disharmony. The vital force reacts and fights back, expressing reactive symptoms designed to attract attention from the universe as it attempts to restore balance and harmony.

Vithoulkas proposes a model of vibrating frequencies in the healthy vital force which resists dis-ease – no succeptibility – an ideal state of perfect immune response – a model of perfect health. In reality, this is very rarely seen due to miasms, because we all contain individual succeptibility to dis-ease states. The influence of inherited miamsatic states and the impact of the environment alters our vibrations constantly as we interact with the world.

Vithoulkas says “The resultant vibration of such a complex organism is undobtedly highly complicated, changing from moment to moment, not only in frequency, but also in regularity of frequency, and in amplitude as well.”

Dis-ease states have their own “frequency”, and they will affect the resonance of the vital force. Healthy people can mostly resist these dis-ease states, but if the vital force cannot restore its healthy vibration rate, it will start to express symptoms in an attempt to balance itself, hoping to restore order. Also, existing succeptibilities will mean that the vital force is chronically in a state of disorder and expressing symptoms more or less constantly. Thus, it is easier for dis-ease states to gain entrance to, or affect the resonant frequency of the vital force.

By matching a remedy to the dis-ease, homeopaths are matching the vital force’s signals. So we try to assist the vital force to express itself, thereby strenghtening the frequency and the intensity of the vital force. We are “seconding” the vital force’s own attempts to vibrate at the preferred frequency and intensity. As symptoms are expressed by the vital force in an attempt to resore harmony and to overcome the dis-ease state, we are assisting the vital force in this rebalancing. When order is restored, the vital force is able to harmoniously vibrate, stronger now and more resistant to dis-ease states. The vital force is now able to maintain its own frequency against all odds and all comers. So succeptibility is satisfied, and we can see the cessation of cause as the vital force no longer needs to vibrate at the dis-ease frequency.

It is said that we catch the diseases we need. This is because we are succeptible to certain dis-ease states because they will help us to express a certain symptom picture in sufficient strength to restore our own individual resonant frequency. In other words, we need to develop immunity to this particular dis-ease state. This is how we develop our immune system. We must gain immunity from dis-ease states we are otherwise succeptible to. Children especially need to do this as they grow. Parents often report that children have improved overall in their health and development after childhood illnesses. Succeptibility has been satisfied and the vital force has been strengthened.

Homeopaths can see the same strengthening of immunity after administration of the right remedy. With homeopathic constitutional treatment, we see the elimination of miasmatic succeptibility and the enhancement of health and immunity to dis-ease states. Succeptibility is thus necessary for us to achieve eventual good health, a vibrant immune system and wellbeing. We should be looking for this cessation of succeptibility and the overall strengthening of immune systems in all of the peoples of the world. Utopia! Why not?

I got 83% for this essay in the 2nd year of my homeopathic college in 1989!

Pearls of Wisdom from my teachers on succeptibility:

“You can be succeptible to a beautiful painting as well as to illness! Reactive force is fundamental to life.”
“The body will discount whatever is not similar to it!” Amanda Bingley

“A good holiday can allow you to release tensions dramatically away from normal so your level of succeptibility will increase = a stonking cold develops on the way home!”

“There is a strange lack of physical ilness in emotional and mental disturbance as stress will take up the centre of gravity and prevent acute physical illness.”

“Severe shock may cause us to jump from one level of succeptibility to another. You may have the strength to throw off the toxins from vaccines, but not enough to remove the suceptibility to the disease you were vaccinated against!”John Tomlinson founder of Helios Pharmacy